Advancements in computer technology and software have enabled communication to occur almost instantaneously. For example, through email an individual in New York can receive a document, image, message, or the like from an individual in California in a matter of seconds. Such advances in technology are not limited solely to communications, but directly or indirectly affect every business and individual. For instance, industrial control systems have enabled modern factories to become partially or completely automated in many circumstances, thereby reducing cost of the factory and consequently passing on such cost reduction to a consumer.
Development of software components and interfacing therebetween is an exemplary advancement in technology that has facilitated cross-software communication. To ensure that components and/or objects interface correctly, Globally Unique Identifiers (GUIDs) are employed to uniquely identify such interfaces. A GUID is a pseudo-random number used in software applications, wherein each GUID is desirably unique. The GUID is an implementation of a standard entitled Universally Unique Identifier (UUID) as specified by the Open Software Foundation. The UUID standard calls for 128 bits to be employed to uniquely identify a component, object, document, etc. Previously, GUIDs were generated based at least in part upon a network card MAC address (e.g., the address was utilized as part of the GUID), meaning that a document could be tracked to the computer which created such document. Due to privacy concerns, however, today's GUIDs do not include a portion of such network card MAC addresses, and are simply employed as a pseudo-random number for uniqueness.
In a manufacturing setting, disparate systems and/or methodologies are employed to uniquely identify an object, document, etc. For example, an object whose generation is based upon a machine can have a time-stamp associated with such generation, thus identifying the object based upon the time-stamp. Further, a sequential number can be employed to identify an object, document, or the like in a manufacturing environment. For instance, an internal counter can be employed in connection with the machine, and objects, documents, etc. can be assigned an identifier according to sequence of creation. In a distributed computing environment/enterprise system, however, these identification methodologies can prove to be inadequate as overlap may occur. Particularly, two connected devices can generate a component, object, document, or the like at a substantially similar time, rendering time-stamps inadequate as unique identifiers. Further, a reboot or system crash can result in re-numbering and duplication of an assigned sequential number. Accordingly, time-stamps and/or sequential numbering, while important for indexing and searching in a manufacturing environment, are insufficient as unique identifiers in a distributed computing environment/enterprise system.
Data bases are another area in which utilization of unique identifiers may be necessary. Particularly, when there exists a plurality of data bases with disparate formats in an enterprise system, it can be extremely difficult to effectively combine that data and perform data mining tasks across the entirety of the data. A data base contains a plurality of rows and a plurality of fields, wherein each row should be unique so that when two data bases are rolled up (combined), there is no overwriting of data. A GUID can be placed in each row to provide this required uniqueness—however, semantics for identification of the row as the primary key will be lost. For example, names are typically employed as a unique identifier in a stand-alone data base. When several data bases are combined, however, similar files with identical names can cause overwriting of rows, and thus loss of data. Therefore, a GUID can be placed in each to ensure uniqueness between rows, but searching by a GUID is time-consuming and can be frustrating, as it is essentially a pseudo-random number that will mean nothing an individual performing the search.
Accordingly, there exists a need in the art for a system and/or methodology for providing uniqueness to objects, documents, and the like in an enterprise system and/or in a data mining/indexing application.